Several trustees of the New York Racing Association on Wednesday weighed in on their CEO’s proposed increased track admission rates before the board adopted the plan with a caveat. The board seemed to favor experimenting with the ticket price changes first at the Belmont meet this spring before implementing the plan for Saratoga’s meet, but opted to pass the plan with the directive for the NYRA staff to come back in March with market data on the idea of raising admission costs.

“We should put that aside and not punish the fans,” said John Hendrickson, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s adviser on the board. “There are people very upset about this.”

Chairman David Skorton said he respects Hendrickson’s point of view, even though he is not a voting member of the board, and emphasized that NYRA trustees have a fiduciary duty to stem the flow of red ink from the not-for-profit racing company. The association lost more than $10 million this year.

The plan to raise general admission rates, box seat prices and parking rates at the three NYRA-run tracks was aired on Monday by Chief Executive Christopher Kay but put to the board on Thursday.

Trustees Anthony J. Bonomo, Barry Ostrager, Earle Mack and Leonard Riggio said they were uncomfortable with raising admission prices. Mack was particularly unhappy with balancing the budget on the backs of fans, he said. In the end, only Ostrager voted against the budget though.

“I lean on the side of experimenting,” said Skorton, who also advised hiring tax consultants to see if NYRA could avoid paying federal income taxes on video lottery terminal revenues received from the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct.

Admission rates are set to rise to $5 from $3 for admissions; and $8 from $5 for club house admissions. Rates last rose in 2005.

The board also agreed to hire A.T. Kearney as a long-term planning consultant to help figure out how to return NYRA to a private concern. It is operating with a publicly controlled board now.

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.